Tax

In this section

Overview

The members of Carlton Fields’ tax team stand out for their abilities to connect with clients and express complex concepts in straightforward terms, and for their creativity and focus on each client’s needs and goals. The group includes lawyers who hold post-law degrees (LL.Ms) in taxation, specialists who are board certified in Tax Law by The Florida Bar, former tax professors, and certified public accountants. Their specialized tax knowledge and effective communication skills benefit clients that include Fortune 100 companies, publicly held corporations, closely held companies, national investment companies and funds, nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, startups, and individuals.

Our team provides comprehensive representation that includes international, federal, state, and local tax planning, counseling, and advocacy; as well as legislative and regulatory advocacy and estate planning. We handle a wide range of tax controversies before administrative agencies and courts, including state trial and appellate courts, federal district and appellate courts, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. Tax Court.

State and Local Taxation

We advise with respect to all manner of state and local taxes, including property, income, sales and use, and documentary stamp taxes. Our representation includes advising on the taxability of transactions, structuring transactions to maximize state and local tax efficiency, and assisting clients with state and local government taxing authorities.

Federal Taxation

We have deep and broad experience with the federal income taxation of corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, tax-exempt organizations, employee benefit plans, and individuals. We advise business entities and owners on a wide variety of tax concerns and strategies, from entity selection to profit maximization to executive compensation to business exit and succession planning. We advise individuals with regard to tax issues relating to entity ownership, tax disputes, and estate planning. We have significant expertise in representing tax-exempt organizations with both U.S. and international presences.

Pre-Immigration Tax Planning
Our team of experienced tax attorneys provide pre-immigration tax planning for persons immigrating to the United States in an effort to minimize their U.S. taxes and preserve their wealth. Please see our detailed analysis of pre-immigration planning concerns, including examples, for more information.

Tax-Exempt Organizations

Throughout the United States, we represent nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations with activities within and outside the country. Our clients include nationally recognized Section 501(c)(3) public charities and private foundations, Section 501(c)(4) civic and social benefit organizations, Section 501(c)(6) trade and business organizations, Section 501(c)(7) recreational membership organizations, and Section 527 political organizations. We help nonprofit organizations report to the public and the government, comply with their tax and solicitation registration obligations, obtain and maintain their tax-exempt status, and manage their worker and contractual relationships. As their corporate and tax counsel, we work collaboratively with each organization’s board members and management.

What the team is known for: Houses highly experienced attorneys working across the full range of state, local and federal taxation matters, as well as issues with complex cross-border elements. Represents a range of both public and private clients in estate and pre-immigration tax planning matters, as well as issues arising out of corporate transactions.

January 3, 2019

December 6, 2018

September 24, 2018

The IRS claimed that our client, a non-profit charitable organization with under 100 employees, owed about $140,000 for failure to fulfill its Affordable Care Act obligation to offer its employees health insurance coverage.

July 26, 2018

The U.S. Tax Court held that Reserve failed to qualify as an insurance company for federal income tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code section 501 (a), (c)(15), which provides for the tax-exempt treatment of income received by insurance companies that meet certain criteria.

June 29, 2018

Historically, taxpayers who made settlement payments to the government or relator in actions brought under the False Claims Act[1] could offset those often considerable costs by deducting all or part of the payment for federal income tax purposes.

June 26, 2018

June 20, 2018

June 12, 2018

Effective Jan. 1, 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created an excise tax with newly enacted Internal Revenue Code Section 4960, to be imposed on tax-exempt organizations and governmental entities. Fortunately, there may be opportunities to avoid these excise taxes through planning with retirement plans.

February 22, 2018

A growing number of startups are offering virtual currencies to investors through initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a way to raise capital, often with little or no awareness of the tax consequences of their actions.

January 25, 2018

January 17, 2018

All employers are at risk of receiving a notice from the IRS that they are liable for a penalty under the Affordable Care Act for failing to offer enough employees insurance coverage, or for failing to offer particular employees insurance coverage. This alert offers a game plan to implement upon receipt of that notice.

December 21, 2017

December 20, 2017

December 19, 2017

A mantra among cryptocurrency investors is “HODL.” The phrase originated in a December 2013 post on the Bitcoin Forum message board by an admittedly less-than-sober investor attempting to announce his plans to “hold” on to his Bitcoin in the wake of a 25% drop in market price. At the time of his misspelled posting the price of per bitcoin was around $400.

October 3, 2017

September 26, 2017

September 26, 2017

A new set of rules for partnership audits (New Audit Rules), which generally take effect January 2018, fundamentally alter the manner in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will conduct audits of partnerships, multi-member LLCs, and certain unincorporated organizations, including joint ventures, treated as partnerships for federal income tax purposes (collectively, Partnership).

September 18, 2017

September 13, 2017

This article should interest employers offering retirement plan benefits or leave donation programs to employees affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, in particular, and in various states of emergencies, in general.

September 12, 2017

September 5, 2017

August 31, 2017

In order for fiduciaries to receive compensation that varies based on their investment advice or from third parties in connection with their advice, they must comply with a prohibited transaction exemption.

August 30, 2017

The Labor Department has proposed extending the applicability date of the Best Interest Contract Exemption, the Class Exemption for Principal Transactions in Certain Assets Between Investment Advice Fiduciaries, and certain amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-24 from January 1, 2018 until July 1, 2019.

Disclaimer

The information on this website is presented as a service for our clients and Internet users and is not intended to be legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. Although we welcome your inquiries, please keep in mind that merely contacting us will not establish an attorney-client relationship between us. Consequently, you should not convey any confidential information to us until a formal attorney-client relationship has been established. Please remember that electronic correspondence on the internet is not secure and that you should not include sensitive or confidential information in messages. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing from you.